Lighting Buying Guide

There are many considerations when purchasing lighting for your child or nursery room from the technical to the aesthetic. The Baby Cot Shop manufactures and stock a wide range of traditional, ornate and contemporary children’s lights including chandeliers, lampshades, table lamps and wall lights, some of which co-ordinate with bedding and furniture ranges such as the Paris lampshade. To help you choose the right lighting for your nursery or child’s room Punkin Patch Interiors has compiled this useful guide to help you.

It’s important to think about the different activities that your children will be doing in their rooms when deciding on what light to choose. Will they need adequate lighting to complete their homework? If so, you may need a table lamp. Do they love to read in bed and will they need illumination to ensure they do not strain their eyes? You might need to purchase a combination of ceiling lights, wall lights and table or floor lamps to ensure all potential tasks are covered in your child’s bedroom.

Types of Nursery and Childrens Lighting

Ceiling Lighting

Types of lighting for the ceiling include chandeliers, pendant lampshades and simple light fittings. Children’s chandeliers come with a minimum of three arms and can go up to 8 or more arms. The higher the number of arms, the more light it gives out. Larger rooms will need more light which can be in the form of a large chandelier or several small ones strategically placed to enhance the design of the room.

Chandeliers

Chandeliers add an elegant touch to any room and have become particularly popular in whimsicalkids' rooms and many replicate an ornate, historic look such which would work well if you wanted to create a vintage/shabby chic style room. All of The Baby Cot Shop chandeliers such as the Ella chandelier are specially designed for children and are available in a range of colours.

Babies lie on their backs and having a view of a beautiful chandelier can be both fun and stimulating for them. Some chandeliers come with Chrystal drops and chains, and others come with shades still other nursery chandeliers like the Ella Chandelier are beautiful on its own. Themed lighting is also an option, as is traditional brass lighting which we can design and custom make to order.

Pendant lampshades are typically made from fabric, and coordinate with the furnishings and bed linen. They are made in a drum shape and are available in plain or patterned fabrics, and in any colour or size.

Wall Lights

Wall lights offer soft, restful lighting and add intriguing variety to your lighting scheme. Whether partnered with a central ceiling light or on their own, they'll give a room real atmosphere. Wall lights illuminate the local area and can also serve as decorative lighting. Themed wall lights includesailboat, moon and stars. Use to decorative effect in alcoves or in rooms that have chimney breasts or to highlight special features that may be in a room such as a painting or a photograph.

Pendants and lampshades

Pendant lampshades are typically made from fabric, and coordinate with the furnishings and bed linen.The colour, shape and material of a shade will make an enormous difference to the overall look of a room and can be the perfect finishing touch to complete a look. Drum-shaped shades tend to look more contemporary than conical shades, which are more traditional. Pendant shades come in all shapes, sizes and colours and are a quick way to update a pendant fitting without doing any electrical installation. All of The Baby Cot Shop's lampshades are designed specifically for children and are available in plain or patterned fabric, or with cute applique details such as butterflies for girls and airplanes for boys

Table Lamps and Nightlights

Some table lamps come as two pieces, a base and a shade. The bases are hand painted to order in your choice of colour, and are available in a variety of shapes and sizes. When buying a table lamp check the shade is in proportion to the size of the base ideally the shade should be no smaller than one-third of the height of the base. Childrens lighting can be selected by gender or theme, girls would love fairytale lamps like the Gemme Jardin while boys will prefer our Knights themed lighting. Is the table lamp you want to use for a more specific use such as studying or reading? If so you might need to purchase a lamp which has an adjustable/flexible frame allowing the light to be moved into different positions/angles. Is the lamp to go in a nursery/child or teenage room? If for a nursery or young child you might want to go with a design that is playful and fun such as the mushroom toadstool night light which will also inject some colour into the room or if for a child who is a little older then perhaps a more traditional lamp base and shade combo would be a better option that offers a more classic style. Young children who prefer the comfort of some light at night-time will benefit from our nightlights like the Rabbit nightlight. These give out enough light to see should they wake up, without the harshness of a main light.

Safety

Younger children can often find power outlets and wires appealing, therefore we recommend keeping the cables completely out of their reach. Also use protective covers over all of your power outlets. These are available to buy at most hardware stores. All our lighting products are wired, tested and approved to UK safety standards.

All lights generate heat. Halogen globes especially generate extreme heat and therefore it is important to consider the mounting location of the lights in your child's bedroom. For wall mounted lights, make sure you mount the light out of your child's reach. In addition, we recommend that you consider using energy efficient Fluorescent lamps because they typically generate less than half the amount of heat compared to regular lamps.